How Long Is ARS Taking On Reward Store Orders?
 

Is it still running 4 to 6 weeks que?

longer.. mutch longer:) They only ordered like the 2 first weeks of May...rest is still pending.:(

What's up with that?? Is the staff overwhelmed or something else is a problem?

4-6 weeks? could only wish lol

doesn't seem to be a priority for them

too mutch orders at once/creditcard problem/outsourcing of the orders problem.

Quite a big thread on the ARS forum.

I am thinking 9-12 weeks at best

Ordered 12th may. Still nothing :(

Wrong....I ordered on May 6th, and I am still waiting.:(

i ordered a hot tub on may 25th... i'm hoping i will get it by christmas when it cools off in south florida.

I'm waiting on a Canon Powershot A80:(

From what I've read, they are only up to the first or second week in May orders. Mine was placed around May 24 and I'm not holding my breath :(

if you can't handle something simple like placing orders either a) your operations are really shitty b) you have cash flow problems

if it took a few weeks to get things cleaned up, ok fine whatever, but a couple months and counting is just not right.

I ordered some stuff in may/jun timeframe and was told to hold tight until about aug/sep timeframe...

I ordered my items in MAY its almost August I don't know how long I still have to wait :(

I ordered 1 gift card in May and I don't see myself getting it for another few months

3 to 4 months.. and that is if you ordered fairly soon after they reopened the rewards store... what a joke.

So the new PDA I just ordered won't be here till Christmas? Great.

What's the problem. It can't be money.

i would say its definetley the money :2 cents:

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I believe their on their May 4th or 5th orders now. Imagine 10,000s of webmasters with reward points all flooding in with their orders the first day or two. I imagine it will speed up as they get through the first few weeks / months.

Cheers,
Matt

According to ARS, the first few days the store was opened there was hundreds of orders placed each day that amounted to almost $500,000 dollars in (can't remember where I got the 500K from...someone threw that number out but it may not have been ARS). From May 4th to May 7th the number of orders dropped dramatically and from May 7th on the number dropped even further.

They appear to be through the bulk of the orders so I think you will see them moving along more quickly. I believe Karen is either just finishing up May 5th or has started May 6h.

I do know for a fact they did place huge orders with Sears. When I called them to find out what time they were delivering my patio set I ordered with rewards points it took the girl forever to even find it. She said she had never seen anything like it in her time at Sears. Lots of big ticket items like appliances, furniture, electronics, hundreds of gift certificates etc.

I honestly don't believe that they expected such a huge rush in so many people cashing in their rewards points....so if we are all a bit patient...we will get the stuff we ordered.

I did already recieve my patio set that I ordered with reward...I have additional orders I placed on May 7th that haven't been filled yet but I am confident they will be.

wow I ordered mine around then and got it set up within 3 days. buying traffic maybe has a priority???

marc de is M.I.A. on the ars boards.. i wonder what his opinion is on this?

It was indeed ARS that said it was over $500,000. Becky said they can't handle that much financial outlay at once. Here's a direct quote from Becky at ARS:

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Well in all honesty, the gift cards are a problem, because webmasters are converting all of their points at once to a gift card order. This caused a huge spike in both orders placed as well as the dollar amount placed. We weren't lying when we said there were hundreds of orders to get through, and we have gotten through a lot of those, however, there is still almost half a million in orders placed. This was never a problem before, because we never allowed gift cards to be ordered. There is no way we are going to spend half a million dollars all at once on rewards. When the program was instituted, we knew that there would be an average amount ordered because people had to get what was available in the catalog. Now that gift cards are in the equation, our original analysis of rewards spending is very skewed. We will continue to work on this problem. Obviously we don't want webmasters angry with us and taking their business elsewhere.
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according to Karen, the backlog is about 120 days right now.

I dont think its a labor issue.. i think it's more of a cash flow issue.. which is surprising because marc has a fleet of vehicles that would put some rappers to shame :2 cents:

Who do you know? Sounds like you have a good in.

Ah, from my years in business, I learned long ago do not judge someone's wealth by the cars they drive and have.

Most of the rappers end up flat broke once their album sales fizzle out and the next hot group comes along unless they invest their money wisely. Investing in pimpmobiles is not a wise investment.

I know more really wealthy guys that drive SUV's, pickups, and the like than fancy cars.

true KRL, that was an asshole comment by me (im damn jealous of his fleet).. regardless, i'd like to hear a comment from him on this subject though..

oh yeah, KRL, i ended up selling that domain to that rappers record label.. it wasnt a huge payday, but I got something for nothing :thumbsup

Probably all leased :)

No way to know what is really going on over there. Becky made the comment "There is no way we are going to spend half a million dollars all at once on rewards" but then said she meant only that "we weren't going to get all the orders done in one month".

But the boards there are almost dead, most posts are negative about something or other and no-one seems very much bothered. When someone pointed out yesterday that he was ranked #10 with 5 sales at ARS4Real, the response from ARS was that there is a big difference between #1 and #10.

Whoever wrote that must not have noticed the inherent implication that a once major sponsor now has fewer than 10 successful affiliates in one of its flagship programs.

Did you read the book "The Millionaire Next Door"?

:)

DH

thats fucking bullshit. reward points are a part of the payout. they should have set it up as a liability that could be redeemed at anytime, meaning have the money just in case.

shows a lack of planning and cash flow

Um they closed down the rewards store for 2 motnhs and they didn't expet a big rush when they re-opened? Surely they were not that ignorant. Once again they probally were expecting thier new ARS to be a success and they would have the money to place the orders. Of course it's hasn't been a success. When it used to take you $1000 to get into the top 100 in webmaster ranking and now you can do that with $100 something is wrong. Heck my FMAO ranking for last week was 71 and I had a whopping $9.54 in FMAO clicks. Jeez.

that could be the problem right there

geez i guess i better get my order in now.. maybe ill get it by christmas

Well, I consider this a lesson learned. If I decide to offer a rewards system in my program someday I will keep an amount equal to the total translated reward cost of all affiliates in reserve just in case.

I haven't redeemed my points at ARS yet. I don't want to be a burden on them because they already have enough to deal with. I'll just save mine until a good opportunity comes along to use them or until I really need to redeem them for something.

Oh, and, I am guessing the main reason for the mad rush of orders is that they told everyone when ARSRI came out that any account that did not make at least one sale within the first month or so, I believe, would lose all their points. I'm assuming that even though they changed their minds, people wanted to get them cashed in ASAP just in case ARS changed their minds again and decided to withdraw points from inactive webmasters. That was a pretty big deal.

I think the main big rush was also because they had added gift cards to the rewards store. It's a lot easier to order your $10k worth of cards all at once rather than shop for a few days selecting items and placing orders as you find things you want.

I'm pretty sure than Marc also owns 5 or 6 other businesses if I'm remembering correctly. Becky handles ARS for the last couple years or so, no? Might be all wrong on that, lol.

I suggested they take out an equity line of credit if possible to clear the queue, but thats pretty drastic so I'm sure it wasn't taken seriously, lol :winkwink:

Anyway, will be nice to see the backlog cleared. Until then, lets drink :glugglug

I guess I'll be waiting a good while to cash in my points for the Best Buy gift cards :glugglug

:) Yep